Sliver – Unrated

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: B

 

 

I like Sharon Stone.  She is always ticking off all the right people and breaks taboos as much as any woman in film today, and it is not just about sex and the body.  Though her best work remains in her Academy Award-nominated work in Martin Scorsese’s underrated Casino (1995) that still remains quite the epic, Stone broke out in Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992) written by the controversial Joe Eszterhas.  Based on the book by Ira Levin, whose book and original films of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives are classics, had another “woman versus powerful force” novel and Robert Evans picked it up as a hoped-for comeback hit.  The result was Sliver in 1993.

 

Directed by the capable Phillip Noyce, the story involves a fancy apartment building that has had a brutal murder take place, unbeknownst to new resident Carly (Stone) happy to move into the exclusive locale.  However, the killer is on the loose and is it the kind Zeke (William Baldwin in one of his brief A-film roles before Fair Game ruined his career) or the obnoxious Jack (Tom Berenger at his annoying best)?  There are a few other suspects, but their suspicion does not hold for long.  It is faithful to the book, but originally received an NC-17 for its sex and violence.  This is that uncut version.

 

At the time, Stone was lambasted for doing another thriller film about sex and murder.  Though it can have its knowingly trash moments, the film is better than many of its critics have acknowledged and uncut, it works better.  The intensity of any of the sex is far better than many such sequences we have seen since, as sex itself has become more degraded by the media than ever.  It is also more honest about the way mature people joke about and talk about sex when they are not making the kind of sick jokes that allow all of them to pretend not to be uncomfortable about the subject.  The other twist is about voyeurism and the then-advanced video system that composed of several dozen TV sets, one giant TV set, dozens of hidden cameras watching people inside the building and decks to record each room on mini-DV.  Even as digital High Definition and other Internet and wireless-related technology has kicked in since, the look of the set-up is as interesting as ever and was designed to be sexy and technological at the same time.  The killer has access to it.

 

Though its interest in addressing voyeurism is somewhat limited and used as a plot device, the kind of sexual interactions are more honest than sleazy than many would like to admit and the sex is believable.  Unlike her Basic Instinct persona that involves power, Stone’s honest portrayal of an older woman rediscovering sex is a key moment in the portrayal of female sexuality in the cinema and has not been approached since.

 

The problem with the film is that it does not know if it should stick with the killer in the novel, or offer a new one and this came in the form of audience testing when it was still considered experimental versus ultra-destructive and mandatory explaining why films have become so bad since.  That is a shame, because a solid mystery would have helped this film flow even better, but it is still strong even flawed because the actors are always interesting and Noyce can direct well.  The studio had two other endings made and still in the vaults.

 

At the time, it was considered creepy and even obscene that all your personal and private time might be captured on video in a recently less-technologized time.  Now, that the public has been solid on “reality TV” and duped into giving up civil rights and privacy for reasons too complicated to get into here, this film will be seen as some as less outrageous on that level.  That is disturbing in itself.  That cinema has become less sexually honest, replaced by more sexually crass is idiotic.  That all adds up to make Sliver a fascinating time capsule and an underrated film that deserves some revisionist thinking in its favor and embarrasses those who criticized it for its sex, only to let slide the more important issues aforementioned.  Being ambitious with all this talent on hand usually yields interesting results, something we don’t see much of these days.  Polly Walker, Colleen Camp, Martin Landau, CCH Pounder, Nina Foch, Keene Curtis and Nicholas Pryor also star.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2 X 1 image is reframed from the original 2.35 X 1 anamorphic Panavision scope theatrical frame as shot by the great Vilmos Zsigmond, A.S.C. so the image can be seen slightly larger.  Unfortunately, this is an older NTSC analog transfer of the material and it shows in the lack of fine detail and slight Video Black issues.  Paul Sylbert’s production design is a plus.  The film was issued in Dolby’s improved analog Spectral Recording (SR) system, but the 5.1 mix here looses more of the smoothness and fidelity of that presentation than expected, while it also cannot compete with the old 12” LaserDisc’s PCM 2.0 Stereo Pro Logic tracks.  At least UB40’s big hit butchering of Elvis Presley’s I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You is not as clear, but Howard Shore’s music is good.  Despite all the material available, like the other endings, trailers, great poster art and even new interviews (audio commentary track(s)?) with behind the scenes footage, this is a basic DVD.  Too bad, because Sliver is more interesting than it gets credit for and this DVD may finally bare (no pun intended) that out.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo